A Sense of Place: MEADOW/FIELD – hearing

A Sense of Place

In his essay ‘So:ba’, given at the International Haiku Conference (SUNY Plattsburgh, NY, 2008) and published serially in Frogpond, Jim Kacian discusses the concept of ba:

“If you look up ba in any Japanese-English Dictionary you’ll find it means “place” or “site” or “occasion”. And these are all true in the most general sense—ba is a pointer to a kind of awareness that something of importance is happening in time and space.”

So here we are…

In the following weeks we will get back to haiku basics and explore specific locations with an emphasis on the senses, and with the intention of improving our own haiku practice. Ideally, participants will select an actual location that they can visit, or a location from memory that they have visited in the past. Failing that, we always have our imaginations – and you’re invited to join in the fun! Submit an original unpublished poem (or poems) via our Contact Form by Sunday midnight on the theme of the week, including your name as you would like it to appear, and place of residence. I will select from these for the column, and add commentary.

next week’s theme: MEADOW/FIELD – smell

We remain in meadows and fields – if possible, the same one as last week – but now we explore the sense of smell…

I look forward to reading your submissions.

A Sense of Place: MEADOW/FIELD – hearing

Change is afoot… more details soon about the future of this blog feature in 2019…

triple washed greens
the drone of a crop duster
over the farmland

Bona M. Santos
Los Angeles, CA

A contrast between the dusting and the washing allow for many ripples of interpretation in the reading of this poem…

sunday cricket
from time to time
the field erupts

Madhuri Pillai

After reading a number of poems about the grasshopper variety, here the reader can find a refreshing take on the actual game…

red clouds –
the engine of a tractor
moving away

Margherita Petriccione

The reader can see the dust and hear the tractor as it moves further away – a picture almost complete… but is the tractor on a dirt road? or have the fields turned to dust because of drought or time of year…? The reader has more work to do to complete this poem, and, as we have seen in the blog comments in recent weeks, different readers will bring different interpretations – it is important to note that all can be valid, whether they coincide with the poet’s intent or not…

cricket song
with every careful step
a new silence

Michael Smeer
Haarlemmermeer, The Netherlands

Is the cricket quiet or quieted? Possibly a luckier grasshopper makes an appearance later in this column…

meadow’s breeze
grandma’s rosary beads
one by one

Radhamani Sarma
Chennai, India

This is another example where more is left for interpretation – here the clicking of beads may mark the passing of time, as well as a person’s thoughts, one by one…

Here are the rest of my selections for this week:

meadow…
the bellwether
chimes the valley

Adjei Agyei-Baah
Kumasi, Ghana

late summer fields
in a warm wind
the craving for rain

Adrian Bouter

meadow grasses
whisper in the night breeze…
murmurs from a tent

Al Gallia
Lafayette, Louisiana USA

night winds
the lions’ teeth
are chattering

Alan Summers

poppy field –
cobs leaves crunch under feet

Alessandra Delle Fratte
Rome, Italy

forest clearing
the flute-song of a thrush
joins the camp fire

Amy Losak

lark song
a single grass stalk
bends to the wind

Andy McLellan

inside the corn
our hiding place –
rustling ears

Angela Giordano

autumn meadow –
between wind and leaves
loneliness

Angiola Inglese

rice paddies –
a frog croaking
against the rain

Anna Maria Domburg-Sancristoforo

Lunch time
At the bottom of a flower
Busy bee

Anna Goluba

a cicada’s silence
under the weeds –
undulating meadow

arvinder kaur
Chandigarh, India

equinox
the overgrown field explodes
with crickets

Barbara Kaufmann
US

dawn
the soft ring of a cowbell
in the fog

Barbara Tate
USA

field silence
a grasshopper flees
my footstep

Blessed Ayeyame
Ughelli, Nigeria

the high grass, silence of the fox

Bob Whitmire
Round Pond, Maine

creaky wagon
still climbing on
in years

C.R. Harper

spring rain
a shepherd boy
talks to his sheep

Carmen Sterba

winter hedgerow
a dry crackling
of twigs

Carol Jones
Wales

across the field
the whinny of a mare
to her foal

Carol Raisfeld

haymaking
gathered in every bale
the crickets’ song

cezar ciobika

wildflowers
dot the meadow
punctuated by sneezing

Charles Harmon
Los Angeles, California, USA

babbling brook…
on the rock
World Peace Day art

(World Peace Day, 21st September)

Christina Chin
Kuching, Sarawak

mother’s voice
from across the field
dinner’s ready

Christina Sng

light morning mist
on the meadow
fading birdsong

Christine Eales
UK

sounds of bugling
elk in the meadow
shutter clicks

Claire Vogel Camargo

mowing the meadow…
a medley of wings
takes to the sky

Corine Timmer
Faro, Portugal

shadows
beyond this sunlit patch
a catbird keeps on calling

Craig Kittner
Wilmington, NC

yoga on the meadow –
the sound of a bumblebee
is my ally

Danijela Grbelja
Sibenik, Croatia

Clear skies
the lark ascending

David Gale
Gloucester, UK

dandelion field
my voice dissipates
in the wind

Debbi Antebi
London, UK

starling cloud
chackerchackerchacker
of a shape-shifting song

Deborah P Kolodji
Temple City, California

the wind
through the grass leaves
in a different tune

Dejan Pavlinovic
Pula, Croatia

fiery summer
still covering the lowlands
coveys of quail

Devin Harrison

autumn meadow
three pheasants rustle
through tall grass

dianne moritz

freshly mowed lawn
disturbed bees buzz
in disbelief

Dubravka Šcukanec
Zagreb, Croatia

mature fields
the cheerful whistle
of a farmer

Eufemia Griffo

a meadowlark’s song –
the silence
between the notes

Gary Evans

in the fields
autumn whispers
time to rest

Giedra Kregzdys
Woodhaven, NY

Po valley –
in the plowed field
scent of silence

Giovanna Restuccia

meadow pond
birds splash
and preen

Greer Woodward
Waimea, HI

hearing
grasshoppers
corn husk doll

Guliz Mutlu

playing fields morph
from leather-on-willow applause
to haka-style roars

Helen Buckingham

heatwave
popping in the field
bamboo trees

Hifsa Ashraf
Pakistan

harvest
after the thresher
crickets chirping

Ingrid Baluchi
Macedonia

shrieking through the rape field crow

Jennifer Hambrick

running through
the meadow with his kite
the sound of his flip-flops

John S Green
Bellingham, Washington

crossing the meadow
a line of silence
in the hawk’s shadow

John Hawkhead

the rustle
of a snake
through the grass

Judith Hishikawa
West Burke, Vermont

wild daisies –
the meadowlark’s crisp call
across the morning

Judt Shrode

field of bees
the bee in my bonnet
a little louder

Kath Abela Wilson
Pasadena, California

children’s squeals
running through
golden poppy fields

Kathleen Mazurowski
Chicago, IL

rising with the sun
the braceros’ voices
in the lettuce fields

(Braceros are seasonal migrant workers)

Kimberly Esser
Los Angeles, CA

again the scurrying
of field mice
in the bales of copy paper

Laurie Greer
Washington, DC

across the meadow
the warblers song
above the wildflowers

Linda L Ludwig
Inverness, FL USA

Sheep Meadow
the surround sound
of conversation

(Sheep Meadow is a 15-acre expanse of green in Central Park often used as an alternative to the beach in the summer; sheep used to graze there.)

Lori Zajkowski
New York City

suburb…
between houses and fields
crickets lullaby

periferia … ninna nanna di grilli /tra campi e case

Lucia Cardillo

midsummer field
the hum of archaeologists
and bees

Lucy Whitehead
Essex, UK

dry meadow foliage
sizzles under the advance
of lashing rain

m. shane pruett

sacred grounds
ancestors cry
in the wind

Margaret Walker

in the meadow
all my secrets revealed
– whispering grass

Margo Williams
Stayton, Oregon

tussocky woodland
grass wrens’ calls spiked
on spinifex

Marietta McGregor

tick tick tick…
tucking autumn
into my socks

Mark Gilbert
UK

summer meadow
the horse’s whinny
in the wind

Martha Magenta
England, UK

Meadowlarks whistle
through the breeze –
grasses and blue chicory

Mary Ellen Gambutti
Sarasota, FL USA

after the harvest
listening to the stars
twinkle

Mary Hanrahan

Football field –
band practice heard
over a mile away

michael ceraolo
South Euclid, Ohio

meadow lark
a voice thick
with stubble

Michael Henry Lee

father’s ghost
echoes through the meadow –
he loves me not

Michael H. Lester
Los Angeles CA USA

fallow field…
crickets fill
the void

Michele L. Harvey

moon shadow
long behind me now
corncrake’s call

Mike Gallagher
Kerry, Ireland

a meadowlark’s trill
wafts in the prairie breeze
homeland memories

Mike Stinson

Early dawn –
invisible blackbirds’
modulated song

Monica Federico

On a hill slope
the whisper of wind
disturbing a meadow

Muskaan Ahuja

the trill
of red-winged blackbirds
meadow grasses

Nancy Brady
Huron, Ohio

harvested fields…
cranes’ farewell calls
from nowhere

Natalia Kuznetsova
Russia

cows munching –
the sound of cowbells
on the meadow

Nazarena Rampini

summer sun
the day I learned how to whistle
through a blade of grass

Olivier Schopfer
Geneva, Switzerland

field clover
the buzz in my bouquet
all the way home

Pat Davis
Pembroke, NH USA

dusty brown paddocks
a lamb cries for its mother
as the crow circles

Pauline O’Carolan
Sydney, Australia

pasture horses
snorting out
the errant fly

Peter Jastermsky

family album
another grove
lost to the chainsaw

Philip Whitley
South Carolina, USA

blooming buckwheat
the unexpected absence
of buzz

Polona Oblak
Ljubljana, Slovenia

screech owl reflecting moon over yellowed prairie grass

pru marshall
Cheyenne, WY

long grass
finding the puppy
by his bark

Rachel Sutcliffe

piano concert
light drizzle
over the tea fields

Radostina Dragostinova
Bulgaria

winter wheat
grandpa tunes the radio to
a fortune teller

Randy Brooks

expletive
brushing a cactus while
hiking across desert field

Rehn Kovacic

mackerel sky –
what do poppies hear
when the winds blow

Réka Nyitrai

old plantation –
the predawn love song
of field crickets

robyn brooks
usa

indigo rain…
wildflowers go silent
before the storm

Ron C. Moss
Tasmania, Australia

nature center night walk
my heart beats
with the tree frogs

(the Cincinnati Nature Center in Milford, Ohio, USA)

Ronald K. Craig
Batavia, OH USA

eyes closed –
the voice of the wind
on the grass

Rosa Maria Di Salvatore

twilit meadow
the saffron sound
of cowbells

Sanjuktaa Asopa

after a long night
field crickets pausing
for the dawn

Sari Grandstaff
Saugerties, NY, USA

autumn moon
meadow grasshoppers
sound quieter

Serhiy Shpychenko
Kyiv, UA

beeves and sheep
munch the sward
above an airbus

simonj
UK

late summer –
entering the cornfield
the bird’s wings

Slobodan Pupovac
Zagreb, Croatia

rice harvesting
sickles run at the pace
of folk women’s song

Srinivasa Rao Sambangi
Hyderabad, India

field of forget me nots
moms voice
with me still

Stephen A. Peters

your voice
or just the wind
in the meadow

Susan Rogers
Los Angeles, CA, USA

sunflowers
I hum my own
refrain

Tia Haynes
Lakewood, Ohio

four walls of wheat grass
sounds of your sighs
above the insect drone

Tim Heaney
Atlanta, Ga.

autumn wind
golden ears sway
shining rice fields

Tomoko Nakata

strawberry field…
suddenly
nightingales

Tsanka Shishkova

grassy meadow –
rattle of a cowbell opens
the farmers’ market

Valentina Ranaldi-Adams
Fairlawn, Ohio USA

sudden rain
flooding the field
a warbler’s call

Vandana Parashar

the alarm call
of a ground squirrel
far away

Victor Ortiz
Bellingham, WA

vast meadow –
keeps the flock together
barking of sheep dog

Vishnu Kapoor

Katherine Munro lives in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, and publishes under the name kjmunro. She is Membership Secretary for Haiku Canada and an Associate Member of the League of Canadian Poets. She recently co-edited an anthology of crime-themed haiku called Body of Evidence: a collection of killer ’ku.

ear witness sounds of haiku by Alan Summers
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when we hear something do we, can we, place it into haiku?
how, also, does the haiku sound in general?
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As much as we can overlook the daily things we see from our house windows, to our car, bus, or train windows, to café windows, to work windows, to coming home windows, we also can overlook rather than overhear sounds.
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The most obvious sound might be birdsong which we might choose to ignore if we are in a hurry and possible in a bad mood as well. Something that could be uplifting is pushed aside in our rush to get to somewhere we might not even like.
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Haiku can help make us become an ear witness, for the subtle notes of sound, not simply a loud radio, computer, smartphone, television etc…
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From a sense of place we also get a sense and place of sound.
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Let’s look at how poets have been an ear witness with A Sense of Place: MEADOW/FIELD – hearing, and at the magic of their lines hinting, suggesting, capturing sound and hearing in their inspirational ways. Feel the sound(s) both in the foreground, but hidden in the background, even when they are not mentioned directly.
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the drone of a crop duster
time to time the field erupts
a tractor moving away
cricket song [and] a new silence
meadow’s breeze [and] rosary beads
bellwether (great noun/sound!): the leading sheep of a flock, with a bell on its neck
warm wind
whisper [and] murmurs
chattering
crunch
flute-song
lark song [and] bends to the wind
rustling ears
wind and leaves
croaking against the rain
Busy bee
cicada’s silence [and] undulating
the overgrown field explodes with crickets
the soft ring of a cowbell
a grasshopper flees my footstep (subtle, quiet yet distinct)
.

the high grass, silence of the fox
.
this could make for an interesting single line even without the comma
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e.g.
the high grass silence of the fox
.
creaky wagon [and] still climbing on
spring rain
&
a shepherd boy talks to his sheep
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Even “winter hedgerow” has its sound! 🙂
&
crackling of twigs
.
the whinny of a mare (very distinctive sound of many fields for agistment etc…)
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gathered in every bale the crickets’ song
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punctuated by sneezing is a great line in this haiku:
.
wildflowers
dot the meadow
punctuated by sneezing
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And an interesting version could be this one, where the sneezing line adds an extra pause!
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wildflowers
punctuated by sneezing
dot the meadow
.
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babbling brook
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Thanks, it’s always interesting to read in-between, and “underneath” the lines in haiku!
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p.s.
It was great meeting Jacquie Pearce in person, along with Lynne Jambor, and of course Holburne Museum was a must for bringing up trains! 😉

fading birdsong
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shutter clicks, in itself, is a great catch of sound, and something I’m not sure I knew:
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bugling elkhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSpGd9p17n0
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a medley of wings takes to the sky
.
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a catbird keeps on calling
.
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sound of a bumblebee
.
the lark ascending
.
my voice dissipates in the wind
.
chackerchackerchacker [and] shape-shifting song (very starling!)
.
.
through the grass leaves
.
coveys of quail
.
rustle through tall grass
.
disturbed bees buzz
.
cheerful whistle of a farmer
.
meadowlark’s song [and] between the notes
.
autumn whispers
.
scent of silence (great line too!)
.
birds splash and preen
.
hearing grasshoppers
.
leather-on-willow applause
(my father was a cricketer so this conjures up only the directly mentioned sound, but tea and sandwiches being prepared by mostly wives and daughters)
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haka-style roars
The All-Blacks (New Zealand rugby team both feared, adored, and beloved by the British) created a sensation that the public and even celebrities would copy.
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popping in the field
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crickets chirping
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The monoku:
shrieking through the rape field crow
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Great sound and visual imagery of nature, but of all the horror, thriller, and folklore based movie scenes etc…
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This sound is iconic, but one that perhaps many of us are so used to, we forget, and push it back into the background:
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the sound of his flip-flops
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Powerful and accurate:
a line of silence in the hawk’s shadow
.
.
the rustle of a snake
.
meadowlark’s crisp call
.
field of bees
.
children’s squeals
.
New term for me:
the braceros’ voices
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Great haiku on many levels by Kimberly Esser!
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scurrying of field mice
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the warblers song
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the surround sound of conversation
Brilliant, whether outdoors or in pubs, bars, cafés, restaurants!
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Lullaby works for me both as a noun and verb:
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crickets lullaby
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Great combination!
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the hum of archaeologists and bees
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Wow!
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sizzles under the advance of lashing rain
.
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And another wow!
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ancestors cry in the wind
.
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secrets revealed [and] whispering grass
.
grass wrens’ calls spiked on spinifex
.
.
tucking autumn into my socks
.
.
the horse’s whinny in the wind
.
The wind carries many sounds of things we might not see if they are in the distance.
.
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Meadowlarks whistle
.
listening to the stars
.
band practice
.
voice thick with stubble
Brilliant!
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echoes through the meadow

crickets fill the void
.
corncrake’s call
.
a meadowlark’s trill
.
invisible blackbirds’ modulated song
So true, can’t always locate them, but potent!
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wind disturbing a meadow
Glorious!
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the trill of red-winged blackbirds
.
cranes’ farewell calls
.
cows munching [and] sound of cowbells
.
whistle through a blade of grass
.
the buzz in my bouquet
.
a lamb cries for its mother
.
snorting out the errant fly
.
A strong sound/image regarding horses, but also when we, as fellow animals, have to do it too! It’s another iconic sound if you are involved in horse agistment, or riding trips.
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lost to the chainsaw
.
the unexpected absence of buzz
.
screech owl reflecting moon
.
the puppy by his bark
.
piano concert [and]
light drizzle over the tea fields
.
grandpa tunes the radio
.
expletive brushing a cactus
Haven’t we all swore something out loud if caught by something stinging or thorny etc…?
.
poppies hear when the winds blow
.
predawn love song of field crickets
.
wildflowers go silent before the storm
.
my heart beats with the tree frogs
.
the wind on the grass
.
saffron sound of cowbells
.
field crickets pausing
.
meadow grasshoppers
.
beeves and sheep munch
.
entering the cornfield
.
at the pace of folk women’s song
.
moms voice
.
wind in the meadow
.

hum my own refrain
.

sighs above the insect drone
.
autumn wind [and] sway
.
suddenly nightingales
.
rattle of a cowbell
.
sudden rain
.
alarm call of a ground squirrel
.
the flock together barking of sheep dog
I love this as a whole line, as you see a flock of sheep and hear the barking, but it’s the sheep dog, not the sheep. Yet, the sound together with the sheep feels as if they are barking as one guided by the dog. It really captures sheep herding by a sheep dog, usually a collie.
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Every single line or word together makes those fields and meadows vibrate with sound and often iconic sounds, yet forgotten until we write them down for a prompt. Thanks Kathy!

Thanks Craig!
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I like to show the lines within the lines, as well as subtle “extra-meanings & layers” intentionally or unintentionally present.
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I really ‘shadows beyond’ and ‘keeps on calling’ which made your sunlit patch a fascinating ‘outpost’:
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.
shadows
beyond this sunlit patch
a catbird keeps on calling
.
Craig Kittner
Wilmington, NC

Lots of lovely sounds. My favourites this week:
—
summer sun
the day I learned how to whistle
through a blade of grass
—
Olivier Schopfer
Geneva, Switzerland
—
long grass
finding the puppy
by his bark
—
Rachel Sutcliffe

Thanks KJ, I would highlight these 4:-
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Christina Sng’s lovely
mother’s voice
from across the field
dinner’s ready
.
Deborah P Kolodji’s bold
starling cloud
chackerchackerchacker
of a shape-shifting song
.
Giovanna Restuccia’s lovely use of vowels and consonants in her
Po valley –
in the plowed field
scent of silence
.
Mary Hanrahan’s beautiful
after the harvest
listening to the stars
twinkle

What a colorful array of sounds. Wonderful collection–I feel honored to be a part of this. It’s pouring down rain here today–I’ve printed this out and will spend a peaceful afternoon enjoying each and every poem. Thank you everyone.

I’m lucky that my wife Karen Hoy is a naturalist and has been a wildlife documentary film maker.
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On this particular renga I’d mentioned, and on a ginko at another event, we had a poet who was a botanist awarded the prestigious H. H. Bloomer medal by the Linnean Society for her contribution to natural history.
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It was also incredible to have her on a ginko, where I was Bristol Zoo haiku poet-in-residence, alongside another expert on the Avon Gorge.
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I think bringing in the various common names, as well as folklore names, for plants and other flora, as well as fauna enriches haiku. I would love to have another nature expert who knows both the common names and folklore, alongside the science side of things.

for me finding english names for certain flora and fauna can present a challenge and latin names are often the only bypass. in addition there’s the issue of Europeans and Americans being separated by the common language.
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when i still maintained my blog i was stunned that someone would call a buzzard featuring in one of my haiku (or shahai, not sure which) “a bloody vulture” or something to that effect. then i learned that a buzzard in N America (indeed a vulture) is something completely different from what we know in Europe (the raptor similar to a red-tailed hawk)
and there’s more of the stuff like this…

For accuracy regarding birds in Britain, there was an anthology that published:http://www.wingbeats.co.uk
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And I know Gene Murtha, a bird expert, very much wanted to bring out a similarly accurate book about birds in America.

Another movable (in the wind) feast! So much imagination and creativity from this palette of talented poets! Thanks for comments on my son Erick’s first haiku (“giant tentacle” in Shore/touch)!
And thanks for kind words on my “fields of Normandy.” Thanks most of all to editor kj and the contributors who make this such a delightful feature.

There are two dandelion haiku, can you find the second one? 🙂
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dandelion field
my voice dissipates
in the wind
.
Debbi Antebi
London, UK
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The once loved dandelion wilfully and wrongfully despised is a wonderful denizen of Planet Earth, or Planet Meadow. 🙂
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Debbie chooses a wonderfully strong verb that really makes this haiku zing!
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Did you know there are 400 species of dandelion? It helps to have an award-winning botanist when creating a renga party, and getting some natural history verses too!

Chicory, “chicorée” in French, a plant from the dandelion family. By the way, Alan, “dandelion” also comes from French: “dent-de-lion”, literally “lion’s tooth”. In French we use both the words “dent-de-lion” and “pissenlit”, the latter meaning literally “pisse au lit”, “piss in bed” 😉

Hi Olivier,
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Ah, yes, all French speakers would get this one! 🙂
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Yes, dandelion is that naughty English-language habit of creating a newish type of word out of an old term.
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And of course the clue about lions is in the word ‘dandelion’ itself as well! 🙂
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Here’s a link:
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DANDELION: LION’S TOOTHhttp://sweetflagherbs.com/writing/2017/5/16/dandelion-lions-tooth

Dear Radhamani sarma,
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wild daisies –
the meadowlark’s crisp call
across the morning
.
Judt Shrode
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A fantastic haiku!!!
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The second dandelion haiku is this one:
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night winds
the lions’ teeth
are chattering
.
Alan Summers
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This book tells how the dandelion, which is edible and medicinal, and incredibly helpful, became disliked:
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The Teeth of the Lion: The Story of the Beloved and Despised Dandelionhttp://anitasanchez.com/the-teeth-of-the-lion-the-story-of-the-beloved-and-despised-dandelion/

Dear esteemed poet,
Warm greetings! I went through the link, how interesting is the story,
quoting the title, how much of source of info we get, Amazing! how best we can strive to
redeem them, in total, off springs of Nature,from total extinction.is the immediacy.
with regards
S.Radhamani